A crowd looks on during the Commissioning of the USS Montgomery in Mobile, Alabama on September 10.

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The littoral combat ship was being towed out of the hurricane's path

The recently commissioned vessel suffered a crack hull and will be repaired in port

CNN  — 

A Navy ship being moved out of the path of Hurricane Matthew sprang a leak after it was hit by the tug boat pulling it out of harm’s way, the US Navy said Friday.

The mishap occurred Tuesday as the USS Montgomery, an Independence-class littoral combat ship, was being towed out to sea to ride out the hurricane after being ordered out of Mayport Naval Station near Jacksonville, Florida.

The Montgomery suffered a cracked hull, which Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Haggard, a spokeswoman for the Naval Surface Forces Pacific, called a “minor seawater intrusion” that the crew was able to patch temporarily.

“An investigation into possible causes is underway, and the ship will receive more permanent repairs upon her return to port,” Haggard said in a statement.

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The USS Anzio, a guided-missile cruiser, was also being pulled out to sea when the incident occurred. The Anzio appeared to suffer no damage.

This isn’t the first mishap for the Montgomery, which was commissioned last month in Mobile, Alabama, and is making its way to its home port in San Diego.

Just days after its commissioning, the Montgomery experienced a seawater leak into the vessel’s hydraulic cooling system, and then lost one of its gas turbine engines later that day.